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Overwatch Heroes Can’t Swim Because Water Maps Feel "Gimmicky"

Overwatch maps are home to some of a many engaging set pieces in gaming. You transport from a film set, to a troops base, even all a approach to a moon. But one of a few places we don’t get to see is an underwater level. Other shooters like PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, Call of Duty Infinite Warfare, and others underline swimming mechanics, so naturally, players wondered because we can’t do a same in Overwatch.

Turns out a answer is indeed flattering elementary – a growth group simply doesn’t like water levels, only like many of a gaming race out there.

“The categorical reason is that we frequency found swimming gunplay fun in other shooters that we played,” Overwatch Game Director Jeff Kaplan said. “While a soak is great, a tangible impulse to impulse gameplay is customarily underwhelming if not gimmicky.”

Aside from that reason, H2O and swimming provides a whole new turn of complexity to Overwatch’s animation processes. If a group did eventually concede swimming it could even have a inauspicious outcome of negligence down favourite releases due to a additional workload. This is notwithstanding some maps, like a Horizon Lunar Colony, changing production in a diversion as it is – given that’s only how a impression interacts with a map and their weight, no additional animation work is required.

Kaplan elaborated a bit some-more on how swimming would impact the Overwatch team’s workflow:

Another reason — and one we would simply go behind on if we suspicion swimming combined illusory gameplay — is that each Overwatch favourite is charcterised by palm regulating keyframe animation.

[…]

Everything is finished by hand. If we combined swimming, each singular impression would have to get an heated volume of animation work for a bottom locomotion and animation updates for each ability. The finish outcome would also meant that we would get distant reduction animation work on other tools of a diversion (emotes, prominence intros etc.). But a unequivocally large down side would be that each new favourite we combined to a diversion would take significantly longer for us to make so ensuing in fewer heroes over time.

While Kaplan has pronounced before that a recover of heroes could delayed down eventually, it’s doubtful (judging by his statement) that the Overwatch group will concede swimming to turn a reason it does so.

Do we consider Overwatch maps should have some portions with H2O in them as an additional underline or theatre hazard, identical to Horizon’s Low Gravity territory on a moon? Let us know in a comments.